Her boss had ordered _____ to think up a new slogan for a very important client.

Her boss had ordered _____ to think up a new slogan for a very important client.

• A. her
• B. his
• C. their
• D. our

Answer: (A)

The main idea here is pronoun choice after a verb of giving an order. After words like order, tell, or force, English uses an object pronoun for the person who is being commanded, followed by to plus the verb. Since the sentence describes a female employee who is being told to think up a slogan, the recipient of the order is a woman, so the correct object pronoun is her. The sentence reads naturally as: Her boss had ordered her to think up a new slogan for a very important client. Using his would imply a male recipient, which doesn’t fit the context. Their isn’t correct here because it’s not the possessive or a plural object form to stand alone before to; it would require them or them to be the object. Our would shift the perspective to the speaker and colleagues, which isn’t indicated.

The main idea here is pronoun choice after a verb of giving an order. After words like order, tell, or force, English uses an object pronoun for the person who is being commanded, followed by to plus the verb. Since the sentence describes a female employee who is being told to think up a slogan, the recipient of the order is a woman, so the correct object pronoun is her. The sentence reads naturally as: Her boss had ordered her to think up a new slogan for a very important client.

Using his would imply a male recipient, which doesn’t fit the context. Their isn’t correct here because it’s not the possessive or a plural object form to stand alone before to; it would require them or them to be the object. Our would shift the perspective to the speaker and colleagues, which isn’t indicated.